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INTERIOR WANTS STATE DEPARTMENT TO LIMIT KXL'S EFFECT ON LAND, WILDLIFE: The Interior Department’s official comments on the Keystone XL pipeline focus largely on how the project would affect land, water and wildlife along its path — but little about the broader concerns activists have raised about the Earth’s climate. Interior asked the State Department, which is expected to release a final environmental analysis of the pipeline in the coming weeks, to include mitigation measures that could make up for the pipeline’s impacts. Interior also urged that the final report “acknowledge that some permanent impacts … will result from this project” and “provide some assessment of how the cumulative impacts, including climate change, may affect fish, wildlife and plant resources.” Talia Buford breaks it down for Pros: http://politico.pro/16fuvVk

JUDGE RULES EPA MUST ANSWER TO FOIA CHARGES: EPA will have to answer to allegations that senior officials have used personal email accounts for agency business, a district court judge has ruled. Judge Royce Lamberth charged EPA’s DOJ lawyers with waffling over the facts and said the agency may not have been acting in good faith regarding a Freedom of Information Act request from a conservative group. High-level agency officials in fact “may have purposefully attempted to skirt disclosure under the FOIA,” Lamberth said. Erica Martinson explains: http://politico.pro/14DyozI

GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE … ER, KEEP GOING: DOE was scheduled yesterday to auction off a $50 million loan to the Vehicles Production Group, part of the agency’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program. But a DOE spokeswoman tells ME that “the process is still being worked through” — although the agency is staying mum (for now) on what, exactly, that means. The online bid notice (http://1.usa.gov/14BKJEy) included language preserving DOE's right to, among other things, stop the sale, reject any or all offers or "to enter into one or more definitive agreements without notice." VPG shut down operations earlier this year after running out of money, leaving most of its loan from DOE outstanding.

REPORT HITS NRC OVER POST-9/11 SECURITY: A paper about potential terrorist attacks on U.S. nuclear facilities reopened a 12-year debate yesterday: Has the nation really absorbed the lessons of Sept. 11? The report’s authors — written by a graduate research assistant with contributions from a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project and with financial support from the Pentagon — say it hasn’t, maintaining that the NRC has failed to ramp up its preparations to match the scale of the threat. Lindsay Kalter has more: http://politico.pro/16OthiQ

Sharp response: The NRC and industry quickly shot back with criticisms of the paper. The NRC called the report outdated, saying it echoes concerns expressed 10 years ago during the country’s initial reevaluation of nuclear power plant security after Sept. 11. The Nuclear Energy Institute also slammed the paper. “The report is actually a very weak report,” NEI President and CEO Marv Fertel told POLITICO. He questioned whether its authors have “been to a nuclear power plant.” He added that the NRC and FBI “would conclude that U.S. nuclear power plants are the most secure, best protected facilities in our critical infrastructure. … Anybody who knows anything would say that.” Fertel acknowledged that there is a public perception about risk that the industry has to continue to address but singled out other facts — like lower electricity demand and natural gas prices — as being those the industry must contend with moving forward.

NEW NAVY ENERGY CHIEF WANTS POLITICS OUT OF BIOFUEL DEBATE: The Navy’s new energy chief doesn’t have any uncertainty about the scope of his mission. As the leader overseeing the service’s push to develop advanced biofuels and deploy more renewable energy, retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn says he has “to try to take the politics out of something which is essentially a national security issue.” It’s no easy task. He faces production issues, technological barriers, increasingly tight budgets and scrutiny from congressional Republicans unhappy with the military’s green spending. Your morning host ventured out in the sunlight hours to get the story: http://politico.pro/128uP7z

Fun in the sun: McGinn, who is wrapping things up as president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, starts at the Pentagon after Labor Day, and he plans on taking some time off before then. “I’m going to take about a week off at the suggestion — I’d like to say the orders — of the secretary of the Navy. He said, ‘We’re kind of busy over here, so if you can find some time …’ So that works out well,” he told ME.

But wait, there’s more: ACORE may be losing its chief, but don’t expect the group to drift until it finds a new one. “We’re going to continue making sure that our members see the value proposition, that the Hill sees it,” interim President and CEO Brower said. “We don’t lobby; we advise, we provide research-based information, we educate, we convene.” http://politico.pro/1eNZJF5

SIERRA CLUB HITS UP W.H. OVER SSM RULE: Representatives from the Sierra Club are headed to the White House today for a meeting with officials from the Council on Environmental Quality and EPA’s air and enforcement branches to push for strengthening a proposed startup, shutdown and malfunction, or SSM, standard. The rule, which was proposed after a petition from the Sierra Club petitioned EPA, would cover the excess emissions generated during those periods at regulated facilities. Sierra says the SSM standard is “the most significant environmental justice issues” faced by President Barack Obama. The rule is scheduled to be finalized in September.

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COURT SHOOTS DOWN MURRAY ENERGY OVER PIPELINE DISPUTE: Murray Energy can't claim compensation after speeding up operations at a underground longwall mine in Ohio to avoid working below a newly built natural gas pipeline, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. Murray was concerned mining operations could rupture the pipeline, but the pipeline's operators made mitigation efforts rather than reroute, and FERC approved the application. The pipeline began flowing in November 2009, and Murray, fearing that the “extensive regulatory delay sure to be caused by mining under the pipeline would destroy its business,” incurred extra expenses in mining the coal early.

But the three-judge panel wasn’t having it. “The opinion of Robert Murray, the companies’ principal, that regulators would have delayed mining for long periods of time, unsupported by specific and tangible facts within his knowledge, fails to move the Murray Companies’ theory beyond speculation,” they wrote, upholding a district court decision. “Because the Murray Companies may not collaterally attack these factual findings, their decision to mine the 6 West Panel ahead of schedule was, in the words of the district court, ‘self-inflicted.’ The companies cannot recover damages of their own making.” The opinion: http://1.usa.gov/13nGcLT

One for the history books: The case’s name? Rockies Express Pipeline LLC v. 4.895 Acres of Land, More or Less, et al.

SITE GAG: Stephen Colbert took on fracking gag orders during his Comedy Central show last night, citing recent stories about landowners who have settled with natural gas companies and been subject to non-disclosure agreements. “If a tree falls in the forest and you pay the family who heard it not to talk, then it didn’t make a sound,” Colbert said. He also took aim at a gag order extended to a family’s 7- and 10-year-old children (here’s a story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the legal aspect: http://bit.ly/1bJnfa2). “Important lesson, kids: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything nice at all,” Colbert said. “The problem with enforcing a gag order on a 7-year-old is that for the rest of their lives, anytime someone brings up fracking, the kids won’t talk. But they’ll have a haunted look in their eyes, like when you ask Vietnam vets about Agent Orange or ask NBC executives about Donald Trump.”

ITC TO VOTE ON OIL TUBES INVESTIGATIONS: The U.S. International Trade Commission meets today to vote on preliminary determinations in investigations into imports of oil country tubular goods from various nations. If the six-person commission agrees that imports from India, Korea, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam are, in fact, damaging to domestic companies, the Commerce Department will continue its two investigations to determine what level duties to levy. If the investigations move ahead, Commerce will make its preliminary determinations in September and December, and issue final orders by January and April — although those dates could get pushed back several months. Info on today’s vote: http://bit.ly/1369XR0. 11 a.m., 500 E St. SW

PIPELINE BILL RAISES SOME RED FLAGS: SNL’S Corbin Hiar reports on concerns about a recently passed pipelines bill. “A hastily enacted House bill that is only three lines long will make it harder for businesses, local governments and the American public to review design standards for oil and gas pipelines, according to certain interests. … The issue, according to some, is that H.R. 2576 allows the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to issue final rules through the end of 2014 that draw on proprietary standards developed by industry groups like the American Petroleum Institute without having to publish all of the supporting documents online.” SNL: http://bit.ly/14NZL0V

STEYER TO UNVEIL ANTI-KEYSTONE AD CAMPAIGN: Billionaire activist Tom Steyer is set to announce this afternoon a $1 million ad buy in opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The four 90-second ads, which are funded through Steyer’s Next Gen Climate Action group, will run on the Sunday political talk shows during the next month. The ads, which the group dubbed, “Bringing Down TransCanada’s House of Cards: The Keystone Chronicles,” will “further debunk the tar sands lobby’s propaganda,” according to a statement.

WEEKEND WATCH: MSNBC's Chris Hayes has a documentary airing tonight at 8 p.m. on "The Politics of Power." According to a release, the hourlong special "looks at how, almost a year after Superstorm Sandy, America and the world dangles on the precipice of future drastic weather and oceanic events resulting from our CO2 laden climate — and what needs to be done to prevent us going into the abyss."

— The New York Times looks at tensions between Dow Chemical chief Andrew Liveris, who opposes LNG exports, and others in industry who support exports: http://nyti.ms/1cRoe7u

— Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) has introduced a bill that would extend the wind production tax credit for six years and phase it out. North American Windpower: http://bit.ly/1cHlASL

— EPA will update its miles-per-gallon rating rules for hybrids and electric vehicles as more and more such cars hit the road. New York Times: http://nyti.ms/17tQhDO

— The natural gas firm Cuadrilla is backing off fracking plans at a site in south England as over 1,000 protestors swarm. AFP: http://fxn.ws/143PA5E

THAT’S ALL FOR ME. Have a great weekend.

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